What you need to know
The hot and cold cereal category continues to experience consistent declines, hitting a five-year sales low of $10.3 billion in 2019 following a modest 1% decrease from 2018. The cold segment dominates cereal sales, and its performance largely influences category success or lack thereof, to no avail of hot cereal’s stability. Growth in the category will rely on moving past the breakfast occasion, embracing indulgence where applicable and holistic wellness innovation in less-indulgent segments.
Definition
For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has used the following definitions:
Ready-to-eat cold cereal is any cereal (eg corn flakes, shredded wheat, toasted oat cereal) that is usually consumed dry or with dairy/non-dairy milk.
Hot cereal is defined as cereal that must be cooked (on the stovetop or in the microwave oven) before eating, including oatmeal, instant oatmeal, hot wheat and other grain products.
Cereal bars and other breakfast products, such as Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts, are excluded from the scope of this Report, but their importance to overall demand for breakfast cereal is discussed where appropriate.
